Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Austin Dobson 18401921Ars Victrix
Dobson-AY
When the hard means rebel,
Fairer the work out-grows,—
More potent far the spell.
The loosely-sandalled verse,
Choose rather thou to wear
The buskin—strait and terse;
The limp and shapeless style;
See that thy form demand
The labor of the file.
The yielding clay,—consign
To Paros marble hard
The beauty of thy line;—
For bronze of Syracuse;
In the veined agate trace
The profile of thy Muse.
But transient tints anew,
Thou in the furnace fix
The firm enamel’s hue;
Thy dove-drawn Erycine;
Thy Sirens blue at eve
Coiled in a wash of wine.
Enduring stays to us;
The Bust outlasts the throne,—
The Coin, Tiberius;
Only the lofty Rhyme
Not countless years o’erthrow,—
Not long array of time.
But, that the work surpass,
With the hard fashion fight,—
With the resisting mass.